Over Fall Break the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and the Community Engagement & Leadership Center, led by Creston Lynch and Stephanie Howeth, took a group of students to Lone Oak Retreat Center for Mustang InterSECTIONS.
The retreat consisted of activities designed to help students understand each other’s backgrounds and how they shape our lives and interactions with others.
Students started off the trip by discussing what they felt their most important identities were and by the end of InterSECTIONS were working together to optimize their leadership skills for a diverse environment.
According to Community Engagement and Leadership Director Stephanie Howeth InterSECTIONS was started two years ago with the purpose of engaging “students in tough conversations about human diversity and social justice as it relates to personal leadership. It’s so important for students to think about their own identity and how that impacts their interactions with others, as well as to face tough realities about ourselves and the world in which we live, in order to progress toward being more culturally competent leaders at SMU and beyond.”
It was clear by then end of the retreat that participants did walk away with a sense of accomplishment due to the emphasis trip leaders placed on introspection and authentic discussion.
For first-years Char Jackson the InterSECTIONS impact can best be seen in her communication skills.
“It made me realize a lot of my behavior and things that I say can be taken as offensive even if I don’t intend them to be. It helped me better the way I communicate with other people” said Jackson.